The Federal Government has said a team of specialists has recovered the black box of Helicopter SK76, registration 5N-BQG, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Bonny Finima on October 24.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
Keyamo said it took the specialists 14 days to locate and recover the black box and some other parts of the aircraft.
“As you may recall, the ill-fated helicopter crashed about 1.4 km from its destination on the NNPC’s Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel (FPSO) Nuim Antan. The area of the crash was identified.
“Immediately, the Nigerian Air Force conveyed an NSIB Go-Team to Port Harcourt, from where the Go-Team was transported to the Nuim Antan vessel on a Nigerian Navy AgustaWestland (AW109) helicopter on the same day of the accident.
“Meanwhile, search and rescue operations were activated, and a team comprising members from the NNPC, Nigerian Navy, NSIB, Hydro Dive, NIMASA and ships sailed around the vicinity of the accident site,” he said.
The minister added that underwater recovery of victims and wreckage is a significant project that requires careful planning and provision of technology, expertise, and substantial financial resources to support the operation.
According to him, over 60 personnel were mobilized to the site, including professional divers and other technical experts.
He noted that three bodies and some debris suspected to be from the crashed helicopter were spotted floating and were picked up on the first day.
Keyamo further stated that so far, five bodies identified as deceased passengers have been recovered, while one passenger and two crew members are yet to be found, adding that search and recovery efforts continued until the flight recorder was found on Friday, November 8.
